Paper towel



July 26, 1949.

W. H. WEST PAPER TOWEL Filed Jan. 19, 1948 Patented July 26, 1949 UNITEDSTATES PAPER TOWEL.

Wilfred H; West, Oakland, cam.

Application January 19, 1948, Serial No. 9,63%:

5. Claims. 1.

invention; relates. in); paper towels in. the form of. individualsheets, especially designed. t be dispensed from cabinets. particularlythe. sort usually foundinpublic. washrooms. A. cabinet tor this. purposeandtbepresent: paper towel. are, shown inmyco-pending application,SerialNumber '7.51 ,0.6.8; filed May. 28, 19%. and: entitled Toweldispensing; cabinet. This application. is. a continuation in part of theidentified app c tion..

In. paper towel dispensing: structures. the.- arrangement. is. usuallysuchas. to.- supply towels which. previously haverbeen interleaved orinterfolded so-that the. wl-thdrawaloi. one towel starts the withdrawalof succeeding. towels. In the-interest of. economy, not. only in. thedispensing of towels, but also in. recharging. the dispenser and in.towel manufacture, I. provide. a. towel which is. not. intertoldedorinterleaved with the adiacentltowel, but. rather is. merely. folded uponit.-- self. and is; placed; next. to. the. accompanying towel.vThegeneral shape and. characteristics, of

my new towel are such as to der it usable n present. dispensers. as.well. as in. the... special dispenser shown. in my co-pending-..application.

It. is. anobj'ect of; my invention. toprovide a paper. towel.especially. desi ned tor use intowel dispensing, cabinets... not: onlyor the customary kind;,but likewisetofithe kind shown in my pendingapplication.

A further objector: the invention is to pr vide a paper towel in whicheconomy of dispensingand economy of servicing areimproved;

Another object of the invention is to-provide a paperllQW611ilT-Whifihlih& towel; tends to remain in the cabinet unlessforceably withdrawn therefrom by a user.

Another" object oft-hc invention is to provide a towel whichmaintains'itsshape. so that more towelscan be installed in. a given in t.

Another object of the invention is to. provide a paper towel havingimproved; characteristics but which is readily manufactured by presentmachinery and is readily interchangeable with present paper towels.

Another object of the invention is in general to improve paper towels.

Other objects tog-ether with the foregoing are attained in the forms ofpaper towel described in the accompanying description and illustrated inthe accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a plan of an unfoldedpaper towel constructed in accordance with my invention.

Figure 2 is an isometric perspective disclosing the towel of Figure 1 infolded condition.

Figure 3 is a plan of a modified form of towel constructed in accordancewith my invention and in unfolded condition.

Figure 4 is a cross section on a transverse vertical plane through thelower portion of a standare towel. dispensing: cabin t. the:tcmarv'towelstherein- Fi ure. 5 is: across sectiononza transrerseho lontal p ane through astandard; towel cabin t showing Stanfield-towels;disposed ther ins sure; 6 a cross-section one a ve tical trans. Verses pne: showi g: standard: fiQW-EL cabinet: in a mann r similar t Fig-urn hhltiwl hmyinrproved papertowelsithereint Fleu '1 is a: onia-trans erseontal p ane the showing in figure 5- but disclosing. a: standardcabinet. con ain n towels in accordance with my invention.

While the paper. towel; invention-issueptible: to embodiment innumerous: dif e nt forms. dependins. on various; incidental candl tions,it; is enerally embodledaashownherein to include a sheetofpapen hayingsideedgeszthat are gen rally parallelancllen 'e sessthatare par: alleltoeach other. but that with respect to; the side edges... The... towel18* designed b folded: upon itseli inoppnsite directlons o pro= vide arectangular-central portion an a air of. trapezoidal end portions; Inaddition the. end. p rt ons are provided. with scor s ex endin across.the. sheet. to. weaken. portions hereot in. order that they may readily.tall, b g-gravity. from. the, remaining. partos that-owel The entral.section of. the fnlfleiii tQWfil i5 miidiii p i three thicknessesofmaterial; the. three: thickne s 89- time being; generally an. acute.angled/T para lelw gram in contours-grammes..

As illustrated especially iii-Figures 4. and 5;.the customary: towel;cabinet '5: ludes a ox of a. suitable shape. andsi-zeto contain a pluraity il interfolded towels or. a piiiralitii or separate, folded'towel's.The bottomiszconinrisedioia pair ofintllrnfid flanges Tand.Bildvinganentrahectaneular. open ng. 35 throushthe. lo ermost fold H of atow l lZ'm-ay" p lposed' p n the l er to el lZ is: a pluralit iiiofiaddrtionaL. s m lar towels. c nfined" the walls of the cabinet. Usua ly.thetowelsare' ic icl'ed such a way as to provide a central section it(Figure 5) generally rectangular in outline, the ends of the towelsbeing cut off to form edges 15 and I! perpendicular to the side walls ofthe towel. In the pile of towels there is a central section made up ofthree thicknesses of material per towel and two side sections 0! onlytwo thicknesses of material per towel.

The weight of the bundle of towels is concentrated in the centralsection which is normally of considerably lesser width than the opening9. Thus, normally, the towels sa as shown in Figure 4, and make it easyfor a user not only to withdraw the lowermost towel l2 by means of theflap I l but permits him readily to remove additional towels at once bygrasping the depending portion I 8 of the towel packet. This does notresult in an economical use of the towels, since they are too readilyavailable. Furthermore, since the towels tend to sag into a curvedconfiguration, as shown in. Figure 4, not as many towels can beinstalled at any one time within the cabinet 5 and this makes morefrequent servicing necessary.

In accordance with my invention, I provide a paper towel comprised of asheet 2| (Figure 1) of paper towel stock which has parallel side edges22 and 23. The sheet is divided into a central portion 2a of generallyrectangular contour, defined not only by the side walls 22 and 23, butalso by fold lines 26 and 21 which may be simply locations or mayactually be scored or marked on the towelitself. Adjacent the centralportion 2t, I provide a pair of end portions 28 and 2e, respectively. Incontradistinction to usual practice, the'nd sections 28 and 29 are notrectangular but rather are trapezoidal, being bounded, in addition tothe boundaries formed by the sides 22 and Zitand by the fold lines 26and 27, byedges 3| and 32 established by cuts from a lengthy roll ofpaper towel material. The edges 2: and 32 although parallel to eachother, are not per pe ndicular to the side edges 22 and 23 but ratherslant with respect thereto at a substantial angle;

In addition, the sheet is formedwith score lines 33 and 355 in one formof the invention extending parallel to the end edges 3| and 32 toprovide end tabs 3% and 31 of non-rectangular or acute angleparallelogram contour. In the modification shown in Figure 3, thegeneral outline of the towel is identical with that shown in Figure 1but the score lines 38 and 39 are disposed transversely on the sheet andin parallelism with the fold lines 26 and Z1, inorder to' providetrapezoidal end portionsti and 42.

After the sheet has been fabricated, as shown in Figures 1 and 3, it isfolded upon itself at the reverse fold lines 26 and 2'! into a foldedtowel having a central section 24 which on one side is overlain by anend portion 28 and on the other side is underlain by 'an end portion 29.The result is a bias or slanting central section comprised of threethicknesses of material and trapezoidal side portions comprised of twothicknesses of material. Yet since the end portions 28 and 29 terminateon slanting edges, they provide in plan, as shown in Figure 7, arelatively stiff supporting section which does not sag between the sideedges of the opening 9 but rather extends approximately diagonallyacross the opening 9. Extending nearer to'the edges of the opening, thecentral section is stiffer, precludes sagging, and provides a generallyflat support for the superposed towels. Thus, a full com- W Numberplement of towels can be disposed in the cabinet at each servicing and,more important, the towel pack does not bulge, making it difficult for auser to extract more than one towel at a time. That is, when installedin the cabinet, towels with the slanting central sections extendsufficiently far across the normal opening to provide a relatively stiffbeam support so that the towels remain substantially flat within thecabinet. Still, the score lines 33 and 34 or 38 and 39 weaken thematerial of the towel sufficiently to permit a flap 42 to depend forready withdrawal of the towel.

I claim:

1. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edgesand parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, havingreverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transversescores adjacent said end edges.

2. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edgesand parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, havingreverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transversescores adjacent and parallel to said end edges.

3. A paper towel comprising a sheet of paper having parallel side edgesand parallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges, havingreverse folds perpendicular to said side edges, and having transversescores adjacent to and perpendicular to said side edges.

4. A paper towel comprising a paper sheet having parallel side edges andparallel end edges slanted with respect tosaid side edges and foldedupon itself to provide a rectangular central portion and two trapezoidalportions on opposite sides of said central portion, the trapezoidalportions being of lesser width than said central portion. Y

5. A paper towel comprising a paper sheet having parallel side edges andparallel end edges slanted with respect to said side edges and foldedupon itself to provide a rectangular outline and a slanted transverseportion of three thicknesses.

WILFRED I-I. WEST.

REFERENCES CITED The following referenlces are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Palmer .Mar. 20, 192B FOREIGN PATENTSCountry Date Great Britain July 13, 1896 France Mar. 8, 1943 Number

